I'm reminded of the Monty Python sketch:
Now it's time for Great Actors, introduced as usual by Alan Semen.
Alan: Sir Edwin, which has been for you the most demanding of the great Shakesperean tragic heroes that you've played?
Sir Edwin: Well, of course this is always a difficult one, but I think the answer must be Hamlet.
Alan: Which you played at Stratford in 1963.
Sir Edwin: That's right, yes, I found the role a very taxing one. I mean, er, Hamlet has 8,262 words, you see.
Alan: Really.
Sir Edwin: Oh yes. Othello's a bother too, mind you--especially the cleaning up afterwards, but he has 941 words less
than Hamlet. On the other hand, the [racial epithet removed]'s got more pauses, sixty-two quite long ones, as I recall. But then they're not so tricky, you see--you don't have to do so much during them.
Alan: You don't.
Sir Edwin: No. No, not really. Andd they give you time to think what sort of face you're going to pull during the next speech so that it fits the words you're saying as far as possible.
Alan: How many words did you have to say as King Lear at the Aldwitch in '52?
Sir Edwin: Ah, well, I don't want you to get the impression it's just a question of the number of words... um... I mean, getting them in the right order is just as important. Old Peter Hall used to say to me, "They're all there already-- now we've got to get them in the right order." And, er, for example, you can also say one word louder than another--er, "To be or not to be," or "To be or not to be," or "To be or not to be"--you see? And so on. |
